Oneonta Runner’s Dream Is Coming True

By LIBBY CUDMORE
ONEONTA

In high school, Oneonta resident Teresa Berschwinger made her “bucket list.”

“I wrote that I wanted to run the Disney World Half Marathon,” she said. “But if you had even suggested I would have run a full marathon, I would have thought you were crazy.”

Now Berschwinger, a physical education teacher at South Kortright Central School, will run her first New York City marathon on Sunday, November 1. The race, which starts in Staten Island and ends near the Tavern on the Green in Manhattan’s Central Park, takes runners 26.2 miles across all five boroughs.

A teacher at South Kortright since 2019, Berschwinger got her students involved in Rising New York Road Runners, a program that incentivizes kids to take up running as a sport and a hobby by offering different challenges and incentives. For every challenge, Berschwinger said, she had to submit a report in order to get the incentive. Her students have received t-shirts, water bottles and even 10 brand-new pairs of New Balance running sneakers. But one incentive really stood out—a chance to apply for a spot in the NYC marathon.

“I filled out the information as soon as I got it,” she said. “And when I found out I got that spot, I almost couldn’t believe it. I was so excited, I was texting everyone.”

The NYC marathon was started in 1970, with the original course lapping Central Park. The current course was established in 1976.

Though Berschwinger—who played soccer and basketball in high school in Grafton, New York—began running as a hobby when she was a student at SUNY Brockport in 2008, she only started running marathons last year.

“My cousin is a runner. She’s run the Boston Marathon a few times and she gave me some great advice on how to train for them,” Berschwinger said.

Berschwinger ran the Mohawk Hudson half marathon in 2021 and 2022, the Binghamton Bridge Run half marathon in 2025, and the Syracuse half-marathon earlier this year.

She soon realized that training for a full marathon wasn’t much more than she was usually doing, and ran her first full race, the Two Rivers Marathon in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, last fall.

“I was zig-zagging around Oneonta streets, running 15, 16, even 17 miles when it was 20 degrees out,” she said. “But I had to get those runs in.”

Berschwinger has developed a running schedule where she runs more days during the week, but fewer miles on those runs, a departure from her half-marathon training.

Her solo runs aside, she also runs with the Oneonta running group on Wednesday evenings, which includes NYC Marathon alums Dorothy Davidson (2011) and Jessica Reed (2025). Mike Hamilton also ran in 2024.

Otsego County Board Member Adrienne Martini, D-12, ran the NYC marathon in 2016.

“I knew if I was only going to run one marathon, it had to be NYC,” Martini said.

Though Martini didn’t win the lottery, she got her spot at the starting line by raising money for the organization Every Mother Counts, which aims to provide maternal healthcare and solve the crisis of women dying in childbirth.

And she had some advice for Berschwinger.

“It’s tempting to go really fast when you start on the Verrazzano Bridge because you’ve been sitting at the starting line for so long,” Martini said. “But that’s a bad idea!”

Martini also joked that when she ran, she had her MetroCard in her pocket.

“I kept thinking, ‘I could just get on the subway and go home,’” she said. “But, of course, I didn’t, because it’s an amazing day.”

In addition to the Rising New York Road Runners, Berschwinger has also trained students for Girls on the Run, and brought together students for the 2025 Hot Cocoa 5K in Oneonta.

And recently, she added a new partner to her runs—a 9-month-old puppy, Poppy, that she adopted from the Super Heroes Humane Society.

“She’s not ready just yet,” Berschwinger admitted. “But I thought it would be fun to have her run alongside me in 5K races.”

Once she’s raced NYC, Berschwinger is hoping to run the Boston Marathon in the future.

“It’s a pipe dream,” she said. “I need to get my time down to qualify, but I think I can do it.”

And she hasn’t forgotten about that Disney World Half Marathon either.

“It’s still on my list,” she said.